DHL Supply Chain to set up centres across India

DHL Supply Chain is looking at high growth in its India business, its global CEO said recently, as the south Asian nation gradually shakes off its economic ennui and looks at a fast recovery in businesses and consumption.The company, part of Deutsche Post DHL, one of the world’s largest logistics conglomerates, is setting up its own network of fulfilment centres across the country.In the interview with ET, Oscar de Bok said this is a model that has already been implemented in Europe. He added that the Covid19 pandemic has changed buying patterns of consumers across the world and turned them towards new channels.Fulfilment centres are large warehouses where inventory of orders placed with ecommerce players are packed and stacked before being shipped to customers. These centres can process both business-to-business (B2B) orders—typically high volume of products that are sent to a big-box retailer—as well as business-to-consumer orders, which are shipped directly to an individual’s home.“We are putting together a network of inventory spread across sites. A plug-n-play model where the customer pays for what he uses. The communication, IT systems, standard operating procedures (SOPs) are all common, and hence cost-effective,” said de Bok.DHL Supply Chain operates out of 45 cities in India. To begin with, it will set up centres in the 12 biggest cities--Mumbai, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, among others, said de Bok.“We are making huge investments into IT systems as this is an end-to-end solution, real-time, with complete visibility to the customer. We’ve made these investments in Europe and know how this works,” he said.The demand for warehousing is expected to grow around 160% to reach 35 million sq ft in 2021, almost in line with 2019 levels, supported by growing demand in sectors such as third-party logistics and ecommerce, said property consultant JLL India.Globally, DHL’s supply chain business has seen a recovery in the first half of calendar year 2021, even as constraints continued, especially in markets such as China which has seen a partial, temporary closure of several of its busiest ports due to spurts of Covid-19 infection. New businesses contributed to higher earnings for the supply chain business.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3lhOUWX